Manuel Garcia, longtime Portuguese Feast kitchen manager, dead at 85

The kitchen manager of the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament and longtime event volunteer Manuel Garcia has died.

The kitchen manager of the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament and longtime event volunteer Manuel Garcia has died.

Wareham Police said Garcia, 85, was found off shore in the Sias Point area of Onset and pronounced dead at Tobey Hospital after an apparent drowning. All indications suggested the death was accidental, police said.

Ed Camara, Jr., director of media and public relations for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, said Garcia will be "sorely missed."

"I can't remember a year when he wasn't around" at the Feast, Camara said.

With the training he gave and his experience at the Feast, Garcia left behind a system that will allow someone else to step in and know just what to do when it comes to managing the Feast's kitchen this year, Camara said. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Feast founded by Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira in 1914.

Last year, Garcia told The Standard-Times he had been at the Feast since 1981. He said then he had served as president in 1991, and for the past 10 years had worked as kitchen manager, overseeing the all-volunteer unit that puts out thousands of meals.